1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid electrolyte capacitor in a chip structure having a sintered anode member composed of a valve metal (electrochemical vent or valve metal), an oxide layer acting as a dielectric arranged thereon, a semiconductor solid electrode acting as a cathode, a cathode contact, a cathode terminal and an anode terminal, an envelope and a fuse element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Given operation at low-impedance voltage sources, such solid electrolytic capacitors have no current limitation in case of a voltage puncture, for example, given reversed connection. The short-circuit current that can be extremely high under certain circumstances can heat the capacitor body to such a high temperature that the sintered member used as the anode begins to glow. Given capacitors that have a plastic envelope, the envelope can be caused to burn. When such capacitors are arranged on printed circuitboards, this can have disadvantageous consequences for the neighboring components, since they can likewise be destroyed due to the great heating. There is also the risk that the overall printed circuitboard will start to burn and, therefore, the equipment will be destroyed.
The German patent application 25 31 438 C3 discloses a solid electrolyte capacitor that is equipped with a safety fuse that is arranged in the cathode lead. This thereby involves relatively large structures, so that this embodiment cannot be employed in the extremely-small space available in solid electrolyte capacitors in a chip structure.